You have until midnight on 31 December 2017 to get your application in.

It may interest you to know that you don’t have to upload any music or videos to our system, only provide Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube and social media links – so as long as you keep these up to date throughout the year, there’s no reason you can’t apply now.

Because we want to make sure that when the applications close, we are connected with your most recent work. If you upload something in August, it’s probably out of date by December.

We will use the links you provide to create a UMA Artist Profile ready for January 2018 when judging begins. BUT before the judges get to see them, we’ll send you a log in to your shiny new profile so that you can give it the once over and make sure you love the way it looks, and that your best music and videos are being displayed.

In line with the generally accepted definition of unsigned that refers specifically to record deals, we define unsigned as meaning any artist that does not have a record deal with a third party record label and remains in control of their master recordings.

To that end, artists that have licensing deals, publishing deals, administration deals, managers, booking agents or other representation DO still qualify as unsigned.

You still qualify if you have a management deal, publishing deal, booking agent or other representation.

You still qualify if you have been signed in the past but are currently not signed to a record label.

You still qualify if you release your own music under the identity of your own independent record label.

The Unsigned Music Awards are based in the UK, with a UK Awards ceremony and a UK-based television broadcast. For this reason, the majority of our Awards are only open to applicants currently residing within the UK.

However, there are two award categories open to international artists, so if you are from outside of the UK, these will be the ones for you. They are, Best International Music Video and Best International EP / Album / Record.